Topic: Marlin Crawler 3rd Annual KOH Thread (Feb 2009)

[BigMike]

Hey guys, here are some updates of our Team Marlin Crawler Formula Toy as the team gets it prepared for the 2009 King Of the Hammers competition in Johnson Valley next week.

I have been working on the Formula Toy getting ready for the King of the Hammers race and also the 2009 competition season. We plan to run the 4 W.E. Rock West events as well as KOH. If Pro Rock decides to have any events this year we will consider those also.

Here is a few picks of what I have been doing.

I installed the new Marlin Crawler 25 mm steering upgrade kit.

F.O.A. was nice enough to supply us with a set of their 3 tube bypass shocks for the KOH race. To get these to work I had to re locate the bump stops and re-fab the shock mounts. Because of the bypass tubes, you have to make room for a shock that is 5" around, which became quite a challenge.

To take care of our cooling problems that we experienced last year, Griffin Radiator made up this BAD ASS radiator with dual electric fans.

To get the rear shocks to fit I had to totally change the rear shock mount and bump stops. It's kind of a $hitty picture but I ended up putting the bump stops below the frame and moving the lower shock mount in a little as well as moving it up.

While I was changing everything, I had to deal with the fuel cell cause It had a crack in it. I ended up going with a 16 gal. Jaz cell with a poly inner cause W.E. Rock is going to require this in 2010 and I didn't want to tear it all apart again next year.
I also had to raise the shock hoops to accomidate the bypasses.

Here is a better shot of the bypasses in the rear.

[BigMike [OP]]

To get a little more travel in the rear for KOH, I moved the fuel cell up 2 inches and fabricated a set of longer rear shackles. Brett from Western Fabrication lazer cut these out for me.

Because fuel pump failures have been a problem in the past. I decided to mount the spare pump instead of just carrying it with me.
Still in process.

The 12volt guy was nice enough to set me up with a winch control panel but I couldn't mount it to the dash cause there wasn't enough room. I ended up making a little aluminum box and mounting it between the seats.
As soon as I can remember what I did with the wiring directions, I will get this finished.

When I replaced the motor I planned on installing a LC Engineering header but never got around to it.
Mustard Dog came by and installed it for me. I have some 2" exhaust tubing ordered, I should be able to get it done this weekend.

My tires were showing steel on the corners of the tread after 18 compititions, 2 King of the Hammers races and probably 15 wheeling weekends so it was about time to replace them. BFG Krawlers have treated us good with NOT ONE FLAT EVER, So we bought a new set.
I got to mount these this weekend also.

Here is a random picture of the other projects that I have been neglecting lately.

I have been working every weekend on it trying too get everything done. I should have it ready to do some shock tuning after this weekend.
I still have to:
1. modify and install the exhaust
2. Install a Front Range off road t-case x-member.
3.Finish the fuel tank plunbing.
4. Finish installing the winch controls from 12voltguy.com.
5. Mount the new tires.
6. Make all new panels.
7. Install horn and button.
8. Install rear amber light.
9. Install B-pillar to make window net legal.
10. Get all new stickers made.
11. Replace stripped u-bolt.
12. clean and paint(touch up) chassis.

WOW, that's a long list. I though I was almost done :shaking:

The shackles will stay for the Rock Crawling Season. The bypass shocks will be removed because they are illegal in the F-Toy class.

[ninja turtle]

looking good team. go marlin!!

[BigMike [OP]]

Alright, I got the exhaust parts, the horn button, the master switch and the spare fule pump from Summit. I got the new tires in being mounted, I got the x-member and new u-bolts from Front Range off road. I went to G&J aircraft in Ontario and got new fuel lines ($110 :shaking:).
Hopefully I can get everything done this weekend so we can go beat on it next weekend and do some shock tuning.

OK We got ALOT done this weekend. My crew Chief (HT Barnes) is back on board after a short Vacation. He came over to help as well as Mustard Dog.

We got the new tires mounted on the beadlocks.

The front FOA bypasses are mounted and ready for tunning.

The rear shocks and fuel cell are finished.

I had to re-do the exhaust to accomidate the LC Engineering Header. So I ran it all the way out the back to quiet it down a little.

I was worried that the x-member that we have been running wasn't strong enough for the constant beating of KOH, so I got one of Front Range off Road's transfer case mounts and made an additional x-member.

[BigMike [OP]]

Fuel systen is done, complete with a spare pump if needed.

I got he horn button mounted on the "Oh " bar and the winch controls mounted and wired in on the center console.

Luckly Mustard Dog was looking around at things and found that the PS pump was leaking out of a crack in the top where the hoe goes in, so I still have to deal with that.

I'm down to the short list now. I still have to mount a new air filter, upgrade the window nets for the new WE Rock rules, and make new side panels.
We should be testing next weekend :D

What size and thickness tube did you use there?

It is 1 1/4" .095 Chrome Moly. Which is not strong enough to stand alone but more than enough to add to the existing x-member.

I got the power steering resevoir fixed. Instead of buting a new one, I made a patch to strengthen the arear of the crack and took it over to Western Fabrication and had Bretts brother Brian tig weld it for me. It turned out great.

I made another intake tube that would use a bigger air filter also. I am not totally happy with it. We'll see.

Is that 3"?  If so, get Heywood to send you a copper elbow:D

No, it's 2 5/8" coming out of the intake and 2 3/4" filter.

Thanks for the info, I was wondering about that.

It is part of an entire HOWE system that we bought 2 years ago. It works great.

We did some shock tuning yesterday at the FU2 shop. WE GOT ALOT DONE.
Chris from FOA Shocks really knows his $hit when it comes to shock tuning.
Since this was the first time I drove the F-Toy since I made all of the changes, we had a couple of minor problems. It was running kinda shitty at first, but luckly we found that I had a bad groung on the SDS system and we were able to fix that pretty fast. I also gave us a chance to look everything over and tie up little things that could have caused problems later.

Here is Mike Hendricks giving the car the once over. The nice think about Mike is, he has alot of off road racing experience so he has a good eye for potential problems. It's all about the little things in this kind of racing. One wire rubbing against the frame is the difference between finishing or not.

[BigMike [OP]]

Once we ran the car and Chris started tweeking the shocks, it was obvious that we needed to do some internal valving.
You have to get the internal valving right in the begining, then you can fine tune the suspension with the bypass tubes.
Here is Chris adding some compression valving to all 4 shocks.

Once Chris added compression valving we took it out again. We were testing on a 200 yard streach of desert with everything from small whoops to REALLY BIG WHOOPS, to big jumps. It was a rough ride at first but this time out it was a noticable improovement. Chris from FOA is good at taking mine and Mikes feedback and comparing it to what he was seeing the car doing and making changes accordingly.
We probably improoved the speed of the car by 10mph over the course of the day and more importantly, made it more stable to drive and easier on the chassis and occupants.
I still have to take the shocks apart to add compression valving to the rear and remove rebound valving from the front because we ran out of time.

While we were at it, Bender was nice enough to tig weld up some cracks in the chassis that we found. The chassis on the Marlin Crawler F-Toy has had a hard life. We are thinking that it might need to be replaced after this year.

Oh ya, while we were bouncing through the desert I herd a pop in the rear end. When we were driving back the the FU2 shop we herd a ticking noise coming from the rear end. Mike and I both knew what it was. When we got back to the shop we removed the cool little inspection plug that come on the diamond axle housings and sure enough, 6 broken teeth on the ring gear.
I will get it changed this week. I'm not really worried about breaking a R&P in the race because these gears are the original gears that I have been running for 3 years now including 2 previous KOH races.

We already did that last year.


Some of the early testing.


<a href="http://i71.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid71.photobucket.com/albums/i126/AirRideequipt/KOH/shocktest.flv" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://i71.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid71.photobucket.com/albums/i126/AirRideequipt/KOH/shocktest.flv</a>

Later when the shocks were tuned a little better.


<a href="http://s71.photobucket.com/flash/player.swf?file=http://vid71.photobucket.com/albums/i126/AirRideequipt/KOH/shocktestafter.flv" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://s71.photobucket.com/flash/player.swf?file=http://vid71.photobucket.com/albums/i126/AirRideequipt/KOH/shocktestafter.flv</a>

NA, we wern't event close. Well, maybe a little .
Seriously, that is why it is so important to spend the time it takes to get the shocks right. As always, the video doesn't show anything. It was a REALLY rough stretch that we were on and at first we were getting beat up pretty good, but by the end of the day we were barely hitting the bump stops.
The car driving on the road next to us was Bender pacing us. We were going between 30 and 32mph.

So after KOH will the numbers or how to tech on the shock valving etc be shared with the rest of us?  I hate my shocks and it would be cool to build some for more high speed stuff like this.

We don't have any secrets. The Marlin Crawler F-Toy is an open book. I will answer any question about it. It's all about marketing for Marlin Crawler. Not keeping secrets.
Chris from FOA can tell you what the exact valving is (if he remembers), but you need to keep in mind that every rig will need to have a different valving setup. It's all about unsprung weight and weight bias to get the valving right so my setup will be a good starting point at best.
A leaf sprung F-Toy is only going to go soo fast through the really big whoops. But I can tell you that it is faster now than it has ever been, and more importantly it is easier on the body.

[desertoy]

Thanks for putting this thread up Mike 

[Duffil]

looking good guys.

[Marlin]

Big mike,

Thanks again for your time to put this thread on our board.

Dad

[Rocksurfer]

I really like what you've done with the rear shackles, I like the old set up too even though it only came about when the springs were too long. I think it works great and Marlin you should think about marketing it as a weld in crossmember for those that bob their rigs.

[Joey88RUNR]

I wonder how this thing did?

[unclejpl4x4]

  i like how it's turning out   

[Rocksurfer]

I wonder how this thing did?

2nd in F-Toy class, 23rd overall. Not too bad. 

[desertoy]

It's kinda long but here's the whole story

We arrived at the lake bed on Monday morning after spending Sunday going over the car one last time and tying up all the little things that could possibly rub together and cause a problem. I bet we used 150 plastic ties during the weeks leading up to the race. We also revalved the bypass shocks one last time.
We started pre running the course on Monday afternoon. We concentrated on the areas of desert that we were unfamiliar with. We ran from the start to the first check point (about mile marker 25). We knew that we didn’t have enough up travel in the front suspension to take full advantage of the bypass shocks but in an attempt to fine tune it as best as we could, we added more compression to the second bypass tube to try and get the car to raise up in the front when we were in the rough. After lunch we ran from MM25 around the back side and through Aftershock and Sunbonnet.
On Tuesday morning we spend a few hours helping Mustard Dog valve his shocks and decided to get back to pre running around noon. We went from the bottom of Outer Limits, through the MDR course and around to the top of Resolution. It was getting late so we decided to pre run down Resolution and Back Door on Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday we found that we had blown a reservoir on the right front shock so we spent a little time working with Chris from FOA to get that fixed and then headed out to Resolution. Half way there we hit a rough spot and waisted the front ring gear which ended our pre running. I got a replacement front high pinion ARB coming from Apple Valley and we ended up fixing it Wednesday night while the wind was blowing 40MPH (that sucked).
Thursday we watched the LCQ and just hung out in camp because I was a little scared of beating up the car prerunning too much.
On Race day we got ready and got in line about 7am. We were starting in the 73rd position which was right next to Wayne Isrealson in his V-8 powered rig. The start was bad ass because there was so many people there cheering us on.
We took off at 8:18 am hauling ass across the desert. I bet we passed 20 rigs in the first 25 miles both broken down on the side of the track and just outrunning the rest. The Marlin Crawler formula was running great and both Mike and I were totally impressed on how well we were doing.
Just before we got to Aftershock, we passed a rig that was totally on fire. That was totally heart wrenching. The driver and co-driver were out of the car, there was 8 spent fire extinguishers on the ground, and all they could do is sit there and watch there car burn.
As we pulled up to the first rock pile on Aftershock we came up to the first backup. Nichole Johnson was in the front of 8 racers in line behind her with what looked like a broken rear axle and she was struggling to get out of the way. There were racers trying some insane lines to get around her but we decided to wait because we didn’t want to take a chance on a rollover that early in the race. After a 15 or 20 minute wait we finally got going again. The good part was we caught up to Mustard Dog. The bad part was Hobie had caught up to us.
We hauled ass through Aftershock and around Sunbonnet. We were able to get around Mustard Dog on Sunbonnet and pulled into the BFG pit just in front of him.
The BFG pit guys were great. Along with our crew chief H.T., they checked over the car and topped off the fuel tank in short time and we were off again. We took off for Outer Limits, still just in front of Mustard dog. Half way down Outer Limits we took a bad line and ended up balanced on a big rock with all 4 tires off the ground. Luckily, Mike Hendricks was able to get out and pull our wench line out just in time for Mustard Dog to pull up and yank us off the rock (Thanks MD).
The next desert section was uneventful as Mustard Dog had left us in the weeds. As we headed up Boulder Dash and down Upper Big Johnson we noticed the car was running hot. We had to pull over a couple of times while going up Claw Hammer to cool the car off and by this time Hobie has caught us and passed us. We mixed it up with Hobie while going down Wrecking Ball but he was faster than us on the rocks because he had more suspension than we did.
We finally got to the second pit location where Mike Kalinowski, H.T. and Marlin were waiting for us to check over the car and do the final re-fuel. They found that one of the 2 fans on our radiator had blown a relay and quit working. After a failed attempt at trying to hook up the spare relay I told them to just find a power source and wire it direct. They got it done and we were off after about 15 minutes.
As we were heading up Jack North the motor died. We had no 12volt power at all. Then it kicked on again, then it died again. I noticed that the ignition breaker had popped out so we got out and removed the hood and dash panels looking for the problem. We decided that the radio wire looked like it was grounding to the hood so we wrapped it up with duct tape, put the panels back on and reset the breaker. We made up to the top of Jack and it died again. After waiting for the breaker to reset we realized that every time the computer turned on the fan that was still controlled by it, the breaker popped. Since we were now going down Jack Hammer and we still didn’t know exactly what to do, we kept going. It ran cool enough to get us down Jack and up Sledge Hammer where we got to the second Back up of rigs.
At the plaque on Sledge, we found Mustard Dog trying his best to get up the rock with another competitor just past the plaque with a blown steering line and totally blocking the trail. There must have been 100 spectators watching so it was really intimidating and LOUD. As Mustard Dog was trying the regular line, I tried the Right side line and was able to get up the rock on a REALLY tipsy line. Mike got out to pull the winch line but the broken rig was totally in the way so we had to once again wait for the trail to clear. After about 15 minutes he was out of the way and Mustard Dog had backed down to take the same line that I did. We winched the last 20 feet which put us on our right side, but I was able to get the rig upright at the last minute. Mike jumped in and we were off again.
As we were climbing the last sand hill on Sledge the motor died again. Mike and I decided to rewire the fan from the ignition circuit where we hooked it up before to the race radio circuit as we knew that the radio went straight to the battery and we knew that we would never make the last desert section without the motor constantly dying. After a 10 minute repair we took off again to finish the Fissure Mountain Trail and around the back side to the finish.
We finished the race at 4:33 pm after 8 hours and 15 minutes of the best racing I have ever experienced. We gladly finished in 22nd position, happy to even finish the most difficult desert race ever.
I would like to thank Marlin Crawler for allowing me to drive their car and represent their company. I feel totally lucky to be in a position to race like this and at the same time represent and great company like Marlin Crawler.
I would also like to thanks Mike Hendricks for putting up with my B.S., keeping me calm when things got tough and bringing his years of racing experience to this team.
Our race support team HT Barns, Mike Kalinowski, and of course Marlin did a great job of keeping up with us and keeping the car running. They worked their tail off all day.
The rest of our sponsors included:
FOA Shocks, Chris took a chance on a leaf sprung rig with no travel. Thanks Chris!
Impact Signs made the car look better than ever.
High Desert Driveline, No shaft problems ever.
BFG Tires, we have NEVER had a flat in 3 years.
Griffin Radiator, for solving our cooling issues from last year.
Diamond Axles for making bad ass housings.
12volt guy for making all the cool electrical stuff.

And finally thanks to my wife and all the Tin Benders for their support. The absolute best part of the race was mixing it up with Mustard Dog and Hobie all day.

[KYOTA]

congrats John and team Marlin. was cool to see you guys again

[TacoStewie]

 

[BigMike [OP]]

Very cool story John, thanks for taking the time to write it all up!!

[peacesells]

right on

[BigMike [OP]]

[uglyota]

where are the desertoy posts being quoted from?  I don't see them in the main Marlin F-toy buildup?
really interested in this antiwrap bar bracket...any plan to market these?  Building mine was a serious PITA

edit: just realized that was a diamond (or sky?) axle but a prefab one for a yota axle would be sweet

[P-DiseToy24]

x2 on the anti wrap bar bracket building one for my buddys rig was a pain.

[slc_toyota]

x3 on the bracket

[hilux-1983]

 

[Joey88RUNR]

               Is this thing goin to KOH 2010?

[BigMike [OP]]

Please see Marlin Crawler F-Toy: 2010 KOH Prep